


first and last

by Satine86



Category: The Greatest Showman (2017)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Everyone gets a POV, F/M, Gen, Light Angst, Prompt Fill, Romance, circus troupe - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-20
Updated: 2018-04-20
Packaged: 2019-04-25 13:11:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14379342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Satine86/pseuds/Satine86
Summary: Everyone knew, could see it plain as day: they were in love.





	first and last

**Author's Note:**

> This was a fill for a tumblr prompt: "Circus fam + the barnums betting, gossiping, helping AnnexPhillip relationship"
> 
> This turned into a Thing and got little angsty. I swear next time I'll write something funny.

Phillip was the first to know. He knew from the moment he stumbled out onto the circus platform, and caught a glimpse of purple and pink soaring toward him in a graceful arc. He knew from the moment time slowed, a beautiful face filling his vision as soft brown eyes met his, and he felt his heart stop. 

He knew from the moment she flew away, the momentum carrying her far beyond his reach, and his heart started hammering inside his chest as if he had run from end of the city to the other. He knew the moment she said his name, gave him a discerning once over, and walked away as if she hadn't a care in the world. 

+

P.T. was the first to see it. The long look, the instant connection that went beyond a simple infatuation. At the time he thought to exploit it, it would be a reason to keep Phillip tethered to the circus, something to make certain P.T. could get what he wanted. So he tried to nurture it like a seedling, hoping it would eventually bloom. 

But as time wore on, as Phillip went from overcompensated apprentice, to valued colleague, to friend. P.T’s opinion changed; everything seemed to change. There was no denying the yearning looks, the forlorn sighs that were thought to be so discreet. P.T. knew what it all meant, and he almost pitied his friend. 

+

W.D. was the first see both sides. Not because of the first meeting, and the open staring. He knew that look, he knew what it meant. So he did the only thing he could, the thing he had done for most of his life: he tried to protect his sister. That, however, didn’t seem to work. Because no matter what he did, his sister found her way to Carlyle. 

He knew from the way her smile bloomed the second Carlyle entered a room, a little wider and a little brighter. When his sister’s smiles disappeared, replaced by anger and sadness, he wanted to protect her more. The urge to confront Carlyle was overwhelming, except he knew that would only upset her further. After the theater, when his sister became even less herself, the urge to protect her oddly died. Because he could see the same pain in Carlyle’s eyes. W.D. knew what that meant, and he felt sorry for them both.

+

Charity was the first to really understand it. It was easy enough when she had spent plenty of time with both of them outside of the other’s company. Seeing them together meant it was painfully, endearingly obvious. At times she envied them, the first blush of those feelings creeping up and seizing your heart. Though as time progressed, and she watched pain fill their eyes, she could only ache for them. 

She tried her best to be a shoulder for them to lean on, perhaps as a mother, but mostly as a friend. They both were stoic and reluctant, and she felt her heart ache for them all the more. She didn’t realize the extent of it all until Phillip was laid out on a stretcher, body burned and beaten. Charity had looked at Anne then, her face a mask of terror and heartbreak. That night Charity prayed for Phillip’s recovery, if for no other reason than Anne’s sake. 

+

Lettie was the one who discovered it. Peeling back the layers slowly as it became more and more obvious. The way Carlyle’s eyes seemed to follow Anne wherever she went, no matter what he was supposed to be doing. She often thought it was a good thing he didn’t have act, especially a dangerous one, he probably would’ve died from his constant distraction by now.

She also couldn’t keep from noticing how Anne always seemed to find herself nearer to Carlyle than was strictly necessary. Standing close by while she was waiting to head out to the ring for her routine, her arm brushing the sleeve of his jacket. How she always pursed her lips to keep from smiling when she saw him. 

Once Lettie knew that meant that others knew; Charles, Mary, Florence and so on and so on. It was a domino effect until the entire circus troupe seemed to have heard the gossip. Some were quietly pleased with the development, romantic sighs escaping their lips whenever they spoke of the pair. Others were more overt, teasingly dropping hints and asking pointed questions. And others still took it as an opportunity for entertainment, placing bets while trying to avoid W.D’s protective wrath at the same time. 

+

Caroline and Helen stumbled over it by accident, a joke turned real. But they soon became the staunchest of allies. They would pepper them both with questions, hoping for an acknowledgement or trying to trick them into a confession. They plotted out ‘chance’ meetings, acting like a pair of cupids in hopes of enacting some kind of fairy tale romance. 

Caroline and Helen tried and tried, again and again, until one day their mother forced them away. They had no way of knowing why, but they could tell things had changed and not for the better. It seemed the fairy tale would not come true.

+

Unfortunately it was Anne who was the very last to know. Stubborn to the point of pigheadedness, she had pushed the truth away, kept it as far out of her reach as she could. She did it to protect herself; to protect a fragile heart, she would tell herself in the quiet hours before dawn, when sleep eluded her most. But truly it was simply because she had been scared.

Anne didn’t let the full truth sink in until she was clinging helplessly to her brother, tears streaming down her face as Phillip was carted away from her. His body covered in soot and ash and blood, his bright eyes shut as if in sleep. As if in death. The truth settled heavily on her then, and she struggled under the weight of it. 

The truth being that against reason and against expectation, her heart belonged completely to Phillip Carlyle. Just as his heart belonged completely to her, and had since the moment they had met. 

Once Anne gave into the truth, she knew she could never live without Phillip. So she sat by his bedside and waited and prayed. When blue eyes finally opened again, when his lips returned her kiss, she knew she would never have to.


End file.
